Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Project
Dr. Lindy Fursman
Department of Labour
21 April 2006
Outline of Presentation:
Background
Research findings
workplace practices
employee experiences
Background:
established in August
2003
aim is to promote
policies and practices
to help people to
achieve a better
work/life balance
role of government is
to help people
overcome the barriers
that prevent them
from achieving
balanced lives
NZers views about work/life balance
Workplace Project
Aims to assist New Zealand workplaces to develop tailored
work-life balance solutions by gathering and disseminating
practical information and tools
Research
Two national surveys of 1100 employers and 2000 employees
to collect baseline data
SME project
Awareness raising
On-going issues
Paid parental leave
Flexible working arrangements
The Workplace Project
Pilot Project
Assisting a group of private and public sector
organisations to develop and trial work/life balance tools
Baseline data:
which WLB initiatives NZ workers have access to, and
how useful these are
which employees have access to WLB initiatives
employer and employee attitudes to WLB initiatives
barriers to achieving work/life balance
Plus.
Hard to do (manage/organise, control/monitor)
(9%)
Unable to be flexible in our business (7%)
Staff taking advantage/abusing system (6%)
Employee Survey
Questions about:
Rating of current work/life balance
Current working arrangements that help with
work/life balance
Factors that make work/life balance harder
Working arrangements that would help achieve
work/life balance
How did people rate their work/life
balance
35 31
28
% of respondents
30
25 20
20
15 13
10
3 4
5
0
Very poor Poor OK Good Very Excellent
good
Degree of difficulty in getting WLB
40
32 31
% of respondents
30 27
20
9
10
0
No difficulty A little Some difficulty A lot of
difficulty difficulty
Hours worked
49
50
% of respondents
40
30
20 14 14
7 9
10 5
1
0
<10 10-19 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60+
Hours worked per week
Work/life balance and hours
worked
90 83
80
% of respondents
70
70 60
63 63
56 57
60
50 44 43
40
37 37
40 30
30
17
20
10
0
<10 10-19 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60+
Hours worked per week
40 37
% of respondents
30
20 19
20
15
9
10
0
Never A few times A few times Once or Most days
a year a month twice a
week
Frequency of working in own time
Work/life balance and working hours
in your own time
80 69
% of respondents
70 64 65
60 55
51 49
50 45
40 35 34 32
30
20
10
0
Never A few A few Once or Most days
times a times a twice a
year month week
50
44
40
% of respondents
29
30
22
20
10
4
1
0
None at all A little Some A lot Don't know
Amount of help work arrangements provide
Desired working arrangements
30% would like to work less hours than they currently do,
even if it meant earning less money
50 45
40
30
22
20 18
14
10
0
Family Family Family Households
household, household, household, with no
youngest youngest youngest children
child under 5 child 5-15 child over 15
Caring responsibilities
60 57
50
40 38
30
20
10 5
3 3
1
0
Care for Care for sick Care for sick or Care for Care for other No care
child/ren partner elderly relative someone with a responsibility
disability
Work/life balance: carers and non-
carers
50 45
40
40
29
30 25
20
20 17
10 12
10
0
Work/life Moderate Moderate Work/life
balance work/life work/life conflict
balance conflict